No More Than I Can Handle?

About a year ago, my friend Sarah pointed something out to me that one of her friends had pointed out to her. Her friend is a mom of a very autistic child and was overwhelmed with all that she had to juggle. She said to Sarah, "God never promised that He wouldn't give us more than we can handle. My life is way more than I can handle on my own, and that is why I need a Savior."

The conversation was a huge smack in the face for me and my independent way of thinking. I mean, I like the idea that God's put in me all I need to succeed in life... on my own. But the more I think about it, the more I have come to believe, like Sarah's friend, that it is a load of garbage that we self-sustaining Americans tell each other in a lousy
attempt at comfort. (Interestingly, I have never heard this quote from anyone but other Westerners.)

I decided to do a little study to see if my hunch was right - that this was just an often mis-quoted Scripture. The passage is from 1 Corinthians 10:13 which says,"No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it." (NASB) I read the passage in several versions and also looked at the passage as a whole. Yep. It's about the rampant sin in the Corinthian church, not life's bumps and bruises.

But what about Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me ."? (NASB). YES! Through Christ anything is possible - the mountains move and the dead are raised. "God won't give you any more than you can handle" leaves the power of Christ out of the equation and us on our own to fight our battles. They are just supposedly battles we
can win.

Try telling that to my friends Drew and Jen who are in the middle of a war with their 4 year old son against leukemia. They are people that I hold high as an example of faith under fire, but I would venture to say that they would never in a million years claim to be able to "handle" what is happening in their lives on a daily basis. When they are holding tight to their suffering child strapped to a hospital bed by an iv, it's more than they can handle. At that point, it has to be in God's hands(and where else would anyone want it to be?).

The whole point is Jesus (really, it all seems to boil down to this no matter where you start from). We will all have trails and struggles, in fact, we are promised them. Whether the attack is from Satan, our own flesh, or just a product of this fallen world, our comfort is not in knowing that we won't experience any hardship that we can't handle. That
reeks of pride and self-sufficiency. Our comfort and our peace comes from knowing that we aren't the ones ultimately responsible for winning the battle.